A word-of-mouth sleeper hit, Where The Crawdads Sing stunned the publishing world when sales took off and the book shot onto bestseller lists. It was all the more surprising as the author was a 70-year-old scientist new to writing fiction.
Barkley Cove is a quiet town surrounded by marshland on the coast of North Carolina. When a local man is found dead suspicion falls on Kya Clark, known as The Marsh Girl, who lives alone in a cabin far away from the town. Abandoned by her parents, Kya has survived thanks to her affinity with the marshland and her quickness at learning. Although reclusive, she does form an important friendship that will come to mean everything to her. But will that relationship lead to happiness? And is Kya as innocent as she seems?
Romance, crime, suspense with a dash of courtroom drama, sounds like a sure-fire win, but what did Kate’s book club make of it? Listen in to find out in our most hotly debated episode yet.
Book recommendations
What is your book club reading next? In our recommendations section at the end we come up with follow-on books we think your book club will love. In this episode we recommend:
- Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight by Alexandra Fuller
- The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper by Hallie Rubenhold
- Furious Hours by Casey Cep
- In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
- H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald
- The Outrun by Amy Liptrot
Notes
Read more about the long-tail of Where The Crawdads Sing.
